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I’m Bob Larson. Those who live in small town, rural Washington have become used to being told what to do, how to do it, and when to do it by people with no experience with rural life.

The Washington Policy Center’s Madi Clark says many people who rarely venture out of the city have no idea what goes on out there…

CLARK … “They get stuck in the stereotype of when I imagine rural areas it should be like Little House on the Prairie, but then I drive out there and it’s not so therefore it must be bad. And that’s almost the logic that when these rural families and farm families go to Olympia to testify they’re fighting against this main-stream media campaign of it should return to Little House on the Prairie and if it can’t we need to just fight against the rural areas and farmers.”

Clark says it’s on rural Washington to make it clear …

CLARK … “Telling that story to people that normally don’t hear it is of immense value to agriculture and, not just agriculture but the rural areas, to show what we do on a daily basis to care for the environment, to work hard, to grow our communities, to protect our economy, all of those things, but we need to do a better job of telling the story to the urban populations that hear a very biased message from groups that are against rural areas or against farming.”

Clark says Olympia keeps politicizing many issues that end up hurting rural families, but efforts to grow the rural economy and level the playing field are probably best done on a local level.